Expert: Nicole - 2/24/2009

Question
I work for the animal shelter that only takes care of dogs and cats two days ago a lady just walked in with two large size frogs one was a pac man frog and one was a pixie frog she brought them in together in a 20 gallon long they are both 5 inches long she said they been together for a year in that tank.  These are the supplies she gave

-20 gallon long
-some type of light bulb it says sunglow daylight on the bulb
-repti-bark
-repti-safe
-large soaking dish
-clamp lamp

I have always owned reptiles I owned bearded dragons I have never owned amphibians before I know they have similarities with reptile needs but I know they have differences.  I ended up taken them both home and saparating them I didn't think they can be together even though the lady said they lived together for 1 year I know they get big 8 to 10 inches but I've owned reptiles that were bigger so there size doesn't bother me
-I don't know how old they are even though she said she had them for a year but I don't know how old they were when she got them there around 5 inches?
-how many times a day or week to feed amphibians my reptiles I feed everyday is amphibians the same?
-what humidity should I keep them at?
-Is 80 degress to hot for them temperature wise or should I lower it I thought with skin on them they can't stay hot?
-They foul up there water bowl a lot I clean it out two to three times a day I don't mind doing this but I was wondering if that still is too little should I do it more than three times?
-I don't want them to over eat I heard from other people say frogs eat till they pop how much is too much?

Hope you can help they seem so cool looking and I want to keep them healthy.

Answer
Well she was right about the fact that these frogs can get very large...both of them have a tendency to grow as wide as they are long. It was very wise of you to separate them because they are both fairly aggressive frogs.

As for age...there really isn't any way to tell the ages because they grow so quickly, but both of these frogs can easily live 15-20 years.

They should be fed every day or every other day. They will eat crickets, mealworms, waxworms, superworms, earthworms, and the occasional fish or pinkie(feed these very sparingly!)

They should have between a 50-70% humidity and the temperature sounds about right, although you may want to consider an under-tank heater, rather than a heat lamp because they don't bask like reptiles.

As for the water, you can either keep changing the water or get a filter for the water. Just make sure you use declorinated water when you change it.

Hopefully this will help you out!